blueberry leaves getting reddish

jbclem(z9b Topanga, Ca)November 11, 2011

I've read that when blueberries aren't getting enough acid the leaves get a bronze (or reddish) tinge. I water my blueberries with water and vinegar most of the time so I think they should be getting some acidity. But I have noticed a lot of reddish leaves on some of my plants. I don't know if this is showing low acidity in the soil or if it is a normal thing with winter approaching. Can someone set me straight on this.

These plants are in 5 and 15 gallon containers. The soil mix is 50% sphagnum peat most and 50% potting soil.

I hope that's what it is...we've had some nights in the mid and lower 30's so that might be enough to trigger the color change. I was hoping to be able to monitor the plant's ph needs by watching for bronzing of the leaves, but that may only work in the spring and summer, if at all.

It's the cold. Even in the spring for us, blueberries show a lot of red in the leaves until the soil warms up. It looks like a phosphorous deficiency. Also, many blueberry plants will show reddish leaves when the leaves are young which will green out as the leaves mature. The red is more uniform when caused by cold. When the red is intervenal with green veins, that is usually more indicative of a pH issue. But even this symptom can occur with cold soil.

I just took a look at the leaves, on some varieties there are many leaves with lots of red, though few that are solid red. There are plenty of veins showing green(or a light color), and I only found one leaf where the red seemed to have overrun the veins. Misty seems to have the most leaves with red.

I have an Emerald that's opening up flower buds, lots of them, and also found some blossoms on a Star. Are these really early varieties or is this just a fluke.